meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

Does taking lots of photos cause you to have a bad memory or does a bad memory compel you to take lots of photos?

Luckily actual scientists understand experimental design, and try and address issues like that if at all possible. Here is the abstract of the actual study:

Two studies examined whether photographing objects impacts what is remembered about them. Participants were led on a guided tour of an art museum and were directed to observe some objects and to photograph others. Results showed a photo-taking-impairment effect: If participants took a photo of each object as a whole, they remembered fewer objects and remembered fewer details about the objects and the objects' locations in the museum than if they instead only observed the objects and did not photograph them. However, when participants zoomed in to photograph a specific part of the object, their subsequent recognition and detail memory was not impaired, and, in fact, memory for features that were not zoomed in on was just as strong as memory for features that were zoomed in on. This finding highlights key differences between people's memory and the camera's "memory" and suggests that the additional attentional and cognitive processes engaged by this focused activity can eliminate the photo-taking-impairment effect.

So apparently, photographing objects impairs our ability to remember details about them versus if we are tasked to merely observe the object. However, doing a focused task, like photographing only part of the picture, does not.

dj_bigbird:Or, maybe it's a poorly designed study that said "you take pics of art" and "you look at the art" and the picture takers were more focused on taking pics.

I just glanced through some of the methods. Participants were taken to objects and instructed to observe them then asked to either photograph or continue observing. Lots of parts of the experiment were geared towards maximizing later recall.

Wow, you mean the tossers who "live" their life through their phone and social media are morons that don't know the value of actually living and tend to make all of their experiences completely forgettable because they're too busy taking pictures and pretending that other people are going to care?

Alexei Novikov:Wow, you mean the tossers who "live" their life through their phone and social media are morons that don't know the value of actually living and tend to make all of their experiences completely forgettable because they're too busy taking pictures and pretending that other people are going to care?

imfallen_angel:meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

But everyone's a photographer now...or so they think.

Everyone is a photographer or an aspiring rapper. Even the white kids.

The Googles Do Nothing:imfallen_angel: meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

But everyone's a photographer now...or so they think.

Everyone is a photographer or an aspiring rapper. Even the white kids.

Let's not forget, everyone with a computer is a hacker, if you can boil water you're a chief, add oil to en engine then a mechanic, nail a picture up then an handyman (or woodworker), tighten a loose water hose then you're a plumber...etc.

imfallen_angel:The Googles Do Nothing: imfallen_angel: meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

But everyone's a photographer now...or so they think.

Everyone is a photographer or an aspiring rapper. Even the white kids.

Let's not forget, everyone with a computer is a hacker, if you can boil water you're a chief, add oil to en engine then a mechanic, nail a picture up then an handyman (or woodworker), tighten a loose water hose then you're a plumber...etc.

imfallen_angel:meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

But everyone's a photographer now...or so they think.

There is no smug like professional photographer smug. Any other type of artist will help and encourage people getting into the field. All I have ever seen from professional photographers is insults fired at anyone who buys a camera worth less than $2K, and snide comments without even seeing the photos. When I meet a photographer, I don't even mention I have a camera, because I don't want them immediately turning into an asshole.

Dragonflew:imfallen_angel: meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

But everyone's a photographer now...or so they think.

There is no smug like professional photographer smug. Any other type of artist will help and encourage people getting into the field. All I have ever seen from professional photographers is insults fired at anyone who buys a camera worth less than $2K, and snide comments without even seeing the photos. When I meet a photographer, I don't even mention I have a camera, because I don't want them immediately turning into an asshole.

Well it's not like their job is hard or even artistic. Hell my bot takes better pictures than 99% of professional photographers.

Dragonflew:imfallen_angel: meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

But everyone's a photographer now...or so they think.

There is no smug like professional photographer smug. Any other type of artist will help and encourage people getting into the field. All I have ever seen from professional photographers is insults fired at anyone who buys a camera worth less than $2K, and snide comments without even seeing the photos. When I meet a photographer, I don't even mention I have a camera, because I don't want them immediately turning into an asshole.

True, in all the photographers I've worked/dealt with, only a couple were actually great people, the rest were absolute asses.

And this attitude I saw and dealt with from both the pros and the wannabees made me change my mind about pursuing it as a career.

Dragonflew:imfallen_angel: meh... someone that knows how to take pictures would observe to whole area, and visualize every possible angle, the approach, the lighting, the colours, the white balance, before the camera is even up.

But everyone's a photographer now...or so they think.

There is no smug like professional photographer smug. Any other type of artist will help and encourage people getting into the field. All I have ever seen from professional photographers is insults fired at anyone who buys a camera worth less than $2K, and snide comments without even seeing the photos. When I meet a photographer, I don't even mention I have a camera, because I don't want them immediately turning into an asshole.

Well, the problem there is that every camera (and especially every lens that could go on that camera) has limitations. The more things your camera can do (and the price will rise accordingly) the more different kinds of shots you can get.

You can make beautiful photographs with a cheap camera. You can take bad pictures with an expensive camera. The point is that although you may have an artist's eye, if you are sufficiently serious about photography, then at some point you will bump up against the limitations of your tool. The poorer quality the tool is, the sooner that will happen.

I like to take photos of my kids playing sports. With the soccer player, it doesn't take much of a camera to get those shots and a zoom lens is all that's needed.

My other kid plays volleyball and basketball. Getting decent photos of that obligated me to purchase an SLR and a reasonably fast lens, because it is too dark in a gym to get a properly exposed photo with anything else. Not many integrated-lens cameras offer f/1.8. And it's not much of an SLR - a used Nikon D40 and a 50/1.8 lens. With this setup I can get pretty good action-freezing photos; but I do want a body with more megapixels and high ISO capabilities, because the 50mm lens is so short that action that isn't happening right in front of me has to be cropped down (sometimes by a lot) and then the graininess of ISO 1600 becomes pretty obvious. I can't afford an 85mm lens right now, let alone the f2.8 zooms that are the standard for sports photography (i.e. what grinding_journalist showed us upthread.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can go beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and take pictures or you can go to the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and enjoy going the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc but you can't do both.

relaxitsjustme:I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can go beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and take pictures or you can go to the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and enjoy going the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc but you can't do both.

Never heard that argument before. And not that you care, but I strongly disagree.

John Buck 41:relaxitsjustme: I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can go beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and take pictures or you can go to the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and enjoy going the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc but you can't do both.

Never heard that argument before. And not that you care, but I strongly disagree.

Cheers.

You're certainly free to disagree but that's been my experience. You can either run around the party with a drink in your hand and shoot the shait with you friends or you can skip the small talk and wander around the party with a DSLR in your hands looking for angles, lighting and shots. In the case of landscape throw on a lens bag and tripod too.You can go to the beach and go swimming and being buried up to your ass in sand or you can take photos. Both are enjoyable but you end up choosing one or the other. Unless your idea of photography is Instagram selfies, then knock yourself out.

relaxitsjustme:John Buck 41: relaxitsjustme: I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can go beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and take pictures or you can go to the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and enjoy going the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc but you can't do both.

Never heard that argument before. And not that you care, but I strongly disagree.

Cheers.

You're certainly free to disagree but that's been my experience. You can either run around the party with a drink in your hand and shoot the shait with you friends or you can skip the small talk and wander around the party with a DSLR in your hands looking for angles, lighting and shots. In the case of landscape throw on a lens bag and tripod too.You can go to the beach and go swimming and being buried up to your ass in sand or you can take photos. Both are enjoyable but you end up choosing one or the other. Unless your idea of photography is Instagram selfies, then knock yourself out.

The thing is... if you are a decent photographer, you can easily prepare your camera for the environment that you're in ahead of time, and simply point and shoot and get excellent pictures.

If you're going around looking for angles, lighting and shots, then you are a clueless moron that should not have a camera in your hands.

And that's how I know when there's a wannabee around, and he'll probably be the most annoying idiot around.

imfallen_angel:relaxitsjustme: John Buck 41: relaxitsjustme: I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can go beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and take pictures or you can go to the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc and enjoy going the beach, park, mountains, zoo, party, etc but you can't do both.

Never heard that argument before. And not that you care, but I strongly disagree.

Cheers.

You're certainly free to disagree but that's been my experience. You can either run around the party with a drink in your hand and shoot the shait with you friends or you can skip the small talk and wander around the party with a DSLR in your hands looking for angles, lighting and shots. In the case of landscape throw on a lens bag and tripod too.You can go to the beach and go swimming and being buried up to your ass in sand or you can take photos. Both are enjoyable but you end up choosing one or the other. Unless your idea of photography is Instagram selfies, then knock yourself out.

The thing is... if you are a decent photographer, you can easily prepare your camera for the environment that you're in ahead of time, and simply point and shoot and get excellent pictures.

If you're going around looking for angles, lighting and shots, then you are a clueless moron that should not have a camera in your hands.

And that's how I know when there's a wannabee around, and he'll probably be the most annoying idiot around.

Dude really? If you don't take into account angles, lighting, background you're going to get POS pictures that your mom could have taken.

/you might be right about the wannabee part, because you're an annoying idiot.